New cancer research chair honoured at Dalhousie University

Halifax, NS May 1, 2003 Over 50 faculty, staff, partners and community members came together recently to welcome Dr Patrick Lee to campus as the first holder of the Cameron Chair in Cancer Research.

“I’m excited about the Cameron Chair and my move to Halifax,” said Dr Lee. “Research, particularly cancer research, is a long process. But I believe with a team approach, cancer can be beaten. Dalhousie already has an excellent team of cancer researchers and I’m proud to have the opportunity to help grow and build cancer research in Nova Scotia.”

Two years ago, Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation announced an unprecedented boost to cancer research in Nova Scotia and in the Maritimes. This boost was in the form of a C$12 million bequest to the foundation by the late Beatrice Hunter in memory of her parents, Owen and Pearle Cameron of River John, NS. This resulted in the establishment of the Dr Owen and Pearle Cameron (MacDonald) Chair in Cancer Research at Dalhousie.

The new chairholder, Dr Patrick Lee, is an internationally renowned cancer researcher. He received global attention in the mid-1990s when he and his team discovered that the human reovirus infects and kills cancer cells. Subsequent testing on animals has shown that reovirus causes shrinking of various human tumours implanted in mice. The results of these studies were published in 1998.

Dr Lee is professor of microbiology and infectious diseases with the faculty of medicine at the University of Calgary. This world-renowned cancer researcher joins Dalhousie University officially in September 2003.